The bump may be dead but we should be happy no player is

I don’t really want to bring a morbid touch to the debate about football’s bump but every time I see a player cop a knock to the head and lay motionless on the turf for any extended period, it’s the first thought that pops into my head.

But the passing of time has been kinder to Koschitzke than to Giansiracusa (and the commentators). Eight years on it seems far less relevant to question Koschitzke’s apparent lack of awareness and more pertinent to query why the rules ever allowed the picking off of a player who was never really part of the play.

I found it hard to work out whether it was fitting or ironic that one of the strongest voices in the Viney debate was that of Mark Ricciuto.

Roo was a fantastic player. A rare combination of physicality and skills. But he’s also the guy who, in a profoundly different era, did this to Dean Kemp (without giving away so much as a free kick):

The Viney footage, of course, isn’t nearly so clear cut. Depending on which angle you view it from and at what speed, he either knowingly takes his chance by bumping Adelaide’s Tom Lynch or unwittingly stumbles into an unfortunate collision.

On face value, Viney would probably have been unlucky to cop time for it. But he still would have been luckier than Lynch, who collected the footy, a broken jaw and at least four weeks off for his troubles.

I can’t lie and pretend I haven’t watched the Sensational Seventies and been entertained (and highly amused) at what used to be considered perfectly legitimate in footy.

But we don’t live in the 70s. We live in a time in which the game is played by well-paid professionals, to whom the AFL owes a clear duty to provide as safe a working environment as possible.

That’s a simple premise but very little about making it happen is simple, not in a sport where players are continuously running into each other – intentionally or otherwise - for the best part of two hours each match.

If talkback callers want to froth at the mouth and complain that decisions like Viney’s original two-match suspension are ruining the sport, then they should also reflect on the Koschitzke incident, the concussion battles of Kemp (and others) and maybe half of the collisions in this nice little package of John Worsfold’s greatest hits.

Some fans may lament the fact the bump is dead but they should really be happy that no players is.

If we have to endure another couple of Viney cases on the road to keeping it that way (and, heaven forbid, one of the suspensions actually sticks), then so be it.